UK faces new blockade to curb new Covid-19 stock

The new blockade means that many families will not be allowed to meet at Christmas. “I have to say that it’s so heartbreaking that we can’t continue Christmas as planned,” said Johnson, who said it was “inhumane” to curb Christmas celebrations just a few days ago. Stated.

The new restrictions cover much of southeastern and eastern England, not just the capital. In London, new strains of the virus accounted for 62% of the new cases identified between week and Wednesday.

Similar steps are being taken throughout Europe to defeat the increasing case load. In Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced the first complete blockade in the country since May on Friday, December 24th to January 6th, Christmas.

According to Johnson, in London and the surrounding area, people need to stay home from midnight Saturday, with the exception of some types of work and shopping for essentials, closing unnecessary stores. The place of worship remains open.

Households are forbidden to mix at Christmas, and people are forbidden to visit other parts of the country to prevent seeding elsewhere in the country.

“When a virus changes the way it attacks, we have to change the way it defends,” Johnson said.

In other parts of England, Scotland and Wales, households are allowed to mix only on Christmas day, not the previously announced five days by the government.

The country reported 27,052 new daily infections on Saturday, with the total number of known cases in the United Kingdom exceeding 2 million. Currently, about 19,000 people are hospitalized in Covid-19, with an average of more than 400 deaths per day in the country over the past seven days.

The UK became the first Western country to start vaccination of people with clinically approved vaccines earlier this month. Johnson said 350,000 people have now been shot. It was compared to over 137,000 on December 15th.

The country reported the discovery of a new strain on Monday and has already notified the World Health Organization.

Scientists have identified about 23 differences in genetic material from established strains. Patrick Valence, chief scientific adviser to the UK Government, said these included changes in areas known to be related to how the virus binds to and invades cells, which causes the virus to move more rapidly. He said it might explain why it spreads to the United Kingdom.

He said it had already become the dominant stock in parts of England and replaced the old variety. “The virus is growing rapidly, progressing rapidly, and inevitably leads to a surge in hospitalizations,” he said.

Scientists also said that increasing the infectivity of the strain could increase R (on average, the number of people who continue to be infected) by 0.4 or more. The latest estimates for R across the UK are 1.1 to 1.2.

British officials said it was not clear where the variant appeared (perhaps in a country southeast of Kent adjacent to London) or whether it existed abroad. They said the pathogenicity might explain why restrictions that were effective in other parts of the country to reduce case rates did not in Kent.

They said precautions should continue to be taken to slow the spread of the virus, such as being two meters away from people, wearing face masks, and washing hands frequently.

The virus replicates quickly and mutations are common due to small errors in copying genetic material. This can accumulate over time, creating new variants that can behave slightly differently than older strains.

Scientists around the world have been tracking changes in these genes since the beginning of the pandemic. To date, more than 1,000 variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 have been detected.

The new variant is not the first time a more contagious strain has emerged. In July, scientists described a variant that replaced an old strain of coronavirus over time to become the dominant strain of the global epidemic. Experiments have shown that a mutant known as G614 replicates more rapidly, but is similarly sensitive to antibodies targeting previous strains and is associated with more serious illness. It seems that it was not.

Meanwhile, many of Europe’s new waves during the summer were due to outbreaks among cramped agricultural workers in Catalonia and Aragon, Spain. Swiss and Spanish researchers have identified a variant known as 20A.EU1. This variant was spread to nearby cities and throughout Europe by tourists returning from it.

In Italy, where the government reported 674 deaths from Covid-19 on Friday, the most devastated areas are in the northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Piedmont. However, southern Campania, including the city of Naples, is currently one of the five most affected regions.

Up to 2 people can stay in all homes during the period, but no restrictions apply to children under the age of 14. Bars, restaurants and non-essential businesses will be closed. The curfew, which is already in effect from 10 pm to 5 am, will continue to apply.

Unlike during the spring surge, the church remains open, albeit with a limited capacity that is sensitive to social distance.

Elsewhere in Europe, Germany and the Netherlands have imposed blockades until Christmas, Austria said on Friday that non-essential businesses will be closed from December 26th.

—Francis X. Rocca contributed to this article.

Write to Jason Douglas [email protected]